Maximum cable lengths ?

[Mark Smith]

Hi all,

Does anyone know the maximum length a floppy cable can be ?

I'm just planning out a home server to get a grip on the amount of data I have and I thought I might set it up on the server as well.

Plan is to have a low power PC sitting in a cupboard, and then run a few virtual guests (since I'm entitled to run all the flavours of VMware .. perk of the job :-) on it:

1 * Linux based NAS device
1 * DOS for 64HDD.

Only real snag I might have is for the distances of the Commodore serial bus for the drives .. how long can those cables go ?  And what can I then do to make the cables longer and still have them work ?  (thinking shielded cables and the like, or some sort of distance extender/repeater)

Any thoughts ?

Mark

[airship]

Commodore officially said '3 feet', though 6 foot cables are common. The switchboxes used by schools used 20 foot cables to the box, then an additional 6 foot to the switched peripheral. The best rule of thumb is 'no longer than they have to be'.

I've got my C128 daisy chained to two 1571s, then on to a printer and my 64HDD server, all using 3 ft. cables, so that's 12 ft. total. No problems.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Hi all,

Does anyone know the maximum length a floppy cable can be ?

I'm just planning out a home server to get a grip on the amount of data I have and I thought I might set it up on the server as well.

Plan is to have a low power PC sitting in a cupboard, and then run a few virtual guests (since I'm entitled to run all the flavours of VMware .. perk of the job :-) on it:

1 * Linux based NAS device
1 * DOS for 64HDD.

Only real snag I might have is for the distances of the Commodore serial bus for the drives .. how long can those cables go ?  And what can I then do to make the cables longer and still have them work ?  (thinking shielded cables and the like, or some sort of distance extender/repeater)

Any thoughts ?

Mark

Are you referring to a floppy cable in a PC (the 34 pin, twisted style) or a C= serial port cable?  I've used lengths up to 2 meters with the former without any trouble.  The C= serial port cable can be very long, due to the low switching speeds.  Longest I ever tried was about 6 meters.

[Mark Smith]

Are you referring to a floppy cable in a PC (the 34 pint, twisted style) or a C= serial port cable?  I've used lengths up to 2 meters with the former without any trouble.  The C= serial port cable can be very long, due to the low switching speeds.  Longest I ever tried was about 6 meters.

Well since this is a forum about C128's ... ;-)

Hmm ... 6 Meters might be enough ... have to get some string and measure the distance with all the turns and what not.

I guess the next question is where to get the weird DIN connectors for the CBM serial cables.

Thanks!

Mark

[Blacklord]

I guess the next question is where to get the weird DIN connectors for the CBM serial cables.

These are fairly easy to get - they were a standard item. Dick Smith (in Australia) sell these.

Lance

[smf]

These are fairly easy to get - they were a standard item. Dick Smith (in Australia) sell these.

Your biggest hurdle is to find out what they are called, doing a google/wikipedia search on DIN should help.
Then just check out ebay. Generally they cost less than the postage.

[Andrew Wiskow]

I've got my C128 daisy chained to two 1571s, then on to a printer and my 64HDD server, all using 3 ft. cables, so that's 12 ft. total. No problems.

In Cottonwood BBS's current setup, I have it running on a C128 with six 1571's and four 1541's (device # 8 through 17).  I have a 6-foot cable going from the computer to the first drive, and then standard 3-foot cables between each of the drives.  So that's 33-feet total in cable from the computer to the last drive in the chain, and it all works fine. 

-Andrew

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Are you referring to a floppy cable in a PC (the 34 pint, twisted style) or a C= serial port cable?  I've used lengths up to 2 meters with the former without any trouble.  The C= serial port cable can be very long, due to the low switching speeds.  Longest I ever tried was about 6 meters.

Well since this is a forum about C128's ... ;-)

Hmm ... 6 Meters might be enough ... have to get some string and measure the distance with all the turns and what not.

I guess the next question is where to get the weird DIN connectors for the CBM serial cables.

Thanks!

Mark

DIN is an abbreviation for the German phrase for "German Industry Standard."  The connector is very common in Europe, less so in North America and Australia.  Worse comes to worse, "borrow" some from a standard cable.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Are you referring to a floppy cable in a PC (the 34 pint, twisted style) or a C= serial port cable?  I've used lengths up to 2 meters with the former without any trouble.  The C= serial port cable can be very long, due to the low switching speeds.  Longest I ever tried was about 6 meters.

Well since this is a forum about C128's ... ;-)

Well, your post *did* say, and I quote, "a floppy cable."  The cable that daisy-chains the serial bus is a "serial bus cable."  <Grin>  We're working with computers here, so be precise!  <BigGrin>